When I was in Lviv there were scheduled, cycling power outages.

This is what that looks like, from a restaurant in the city, when the power abruptly goes out.

We took the train from Lviv into Kyiv.

Interesting fact: every inch of steel for the railway tracks in Ukraine was manufactured in Azovstal, the famous steel plant where Ukrainian forces held out in Mariupol.

Lights off in the railway station as you arrive in Kyiv.

This is the darkness that greets you:

Met with a source shortly after the missiles came into Kyiv (and much of the rest of the country).

“Don’t worry about the missiles,” he joked, “we are covered by these here.”

He pointed to a model on the table, grinning.

I’ll be in Ukraine through the holidays and hope to give you a little slice of how Christmas and New Years is observed in a time of war.

I’m sure there will be some shivering but I’ve also already tracked down a small bowl of pho

I joke to my friends that I can find pho anywhere in the world, regardless of the location.

The hardest time was in 2015 in the Horn of Africa.

But I found pho at a place in Djibouti City, at a restaurant that had been bombed by Al Shabaab called La Chaumiere

Today’s dog of war is Ray, a very protective dog hanging out with friends outside a church where we were talking with religious scholars about how Ukrainians mark Christmas

More to come.

Hope you’re all having a nice day!